Not sure if it's weird responding to older posts of yours, but I've been really enjoying "North of Bloor" after discovering it yesterday. Sometimes I wonder if Northern Ontario would be better as its own province because it's clear Queen's Park doesn't care. Your point about the strange Francophone university in Toronto while Sudbury's bilingual campus flails its arms is a good one. But that also has its own challenges, not chiefly among them the fact that Northwestern and Northeastern Ontario don't really talk to each other much and it almost makes sense to break Ontario into 3 provinces, not 2, if you were to go that route.
It's interesting that there seems to be two things that can make you thrive in Ontario if you're not Toronto or Ottawa:
1) Universities, like you're saying. Outside of the GTA and NCR, Ontario's most thriving cities are anchored by at least one prestigious universities: London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, and Kingston.
2) Frequent and easy access to the GTA, often by rail. We've been seeing this with the formerly stagnant Niagara region and Hamilton area, as people continue to get priced out of Toronto. This also applies, to some extent, to the university cities in point 1, as they're all basically in the extended Toronto universe.
I do wonder if beefing up the academic capacities of a school like Laurentian, coupled with upgraded service on VIA (or a GO extension) to Sudbury would be an economic boon to at least that part of the North.
Not weird at all! I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I'm doing with this little project, so happy to get insightful feedback!
There's part of me that definitely wonders whether both northern and southern Ontario aren't worse off for the marriage. Certainly think northwestern Ontario would be better off re-joining Manitoba (not that it's going to happen).
I think we're on the same page re: points 1 and 2. Eds and meds are so critical for any city not directly commuting distance to GTA, and well-regarded universities are the ultimate tool (unless you've got the Mayo Clinic or something).
Incidentally, I was just chatting with a friend from Sudbury the other day about Via service. I'm not sure how practical it is to upgrade. One big problem is the stop for the train to Toronto is in the middle of nowhere. There's a more central station that services a smaller line. Not sure it's practical to run the main line through there. Also a question of whether they can make it work with freight.
Yeah NW Ontario is much more psychologically connected to Manitoba than the Golden Horseshoe. Ontario’s arbitrary bounds have a very lanky, awkward shape, admittedly
That’s a good point about the current VIA stop. Do you know about if the track that goes more centrally could be upgraded or even duplicated as its own separate rail line? The largest impediment to VIA is the fact that it has to share track with freight and always takes a backseat to it. Having a separate track to Sudbury would bypass all of that. Of course, population and politics means that the likelihood of something like that starting on a Toronto-Sudbury route vs Toronto-Montreal route is very nil.
Yeah, that's something I have to look into. I *think* at one point the more central stop serviced the main line, so it's conceivable that it might be possible to re-orient.
Not sure if it's weird responding to older posts of yours, but I've been really enjoying "North of Bloor" after discovering it yesterday. Sometimes I wonder if Northern Ontario would be better as its own province because it's clear Queen's Park doesn't care. Your point about the strange Francophone university in Toronto while Sudbury's bilingual campus flails its arms is a good one. But that also has its own challenges, not chiefly among them the fact that Northwestern and Northeastern Ontario don't really talk to each other much and it almost makes sense to break Ontario into 3 provinces, not 2, if you were to go that route.
It's interesting that there seems to be two things that can make you thrive in Ontario if you're not Toronto or Ottawa:
1) Universities, like you're saying. Outside of the GTA and NCR, Ontario's most thriving cities are anchored by at least one prestigious universities: London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, and Kingston.
2) Frequent and easy access to the GTA, often by rail. We've been seeing this with the formerly stagnant Niagara region and Hamilton area, as people continue to get priced out of Toronto. This also applies, to some extent, to the university cities in point 1, as they're all basically in the extended Toronto universe.
I do wonder if beefing up the academic capacities of a school like Laurentian, coupled with upgraded service on VIA (or a GO extension) to Sudbury would be an economic boon to at least that part of the North.
Not weird at all! I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I'm doing with this little project, so happy to get insightful feedback!
There's part of me that definitely wonders whether both northern and southern Ontario aren't worse off for the marriage. Certainly think northwestern Ontario would be better off re-joining Manitoba (not that it's going to happen).
I think we're on the same page re: points 1 and 2. Eds and meds are so critical for any city not directly commuting distance to GTA, and well-regarded universities are the ultimate tool (unless you've got the Mayo Clinic or something).
Incidentally, I was just chatting with a friend from Sudbury the other day about Via service. I'm not sure how practical it is to upgrade. One big problem is the stop for the train to Toronto is in the middle of nowhere. There's a more central station that services a smaller line. Not sure it's practical to run the main line through there. Also a question of whether they can make it work with freight.
Yeah NW Ontario is much more psychologically connected to Manitoba than the Golden Horseshoe. Ontario’s arbitrary bounds have a very lanky, awkward shape, admittedly
That’s a good point about the current VIA stop. Do you know about if the track that goes more centrally could be upgraded or even duplicated as its own separate rail line? The largest impediment to VIA is the fact that it has to share track with freight and always takes a backseat to it. Having a separate track to Sudbury would bypass all of that. Of course, population and politics means that the likelihood of something like that starting on a Toronto-Sudbury route vs Toronto-Montreal route is very nil.
Yeah, that's something I have to look into. I *think* at one point the more central stop serviced the main line, so it's conceivable that it might be possible to re-orient.